Oil on canvas (lined), unsigned, presented in later gilt frames.

Stretcher size 39 x 32 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 32 1/4 x 25 1/2 in.

Ignazio (Ignaz) Stern, and his son, Ludovico Stern were Baroque painters working in Rome.

Ignazio was born in Austria. He studied with Carlo Cignani in Bologna before working in Lombardy, and finally settling in Rome. All four of his children were enmeshed in the arts. His eldest son, Ignazio, was a still life and portrait painter, his daughter Veronica was a portrait miniaturist, and his second daughter married the noted French artist, Claude Vernet.

Ludovico Stern, Ignazio’s youngest son, studied with his father and at the Academia di Belle Arti di Parma and Academia di San Luca in Rome. Ludovico received many commissions for secular and sacred spaces. Among his best known works is a series of canvases representing the Four Continents in the Palazzo Borghese.

We wish to thank Dr. Fred G. Meijer for his assistance in cataloguing this work.