Giovanni de Angelis grew up in a family of artists on Ischia. His talent and his interest in the fine arts were therefore encouraged early on. At the young age of eleven, he was already considered a “wunderkind” and won his first prize (the Milan “Primo Premio del Fanciullo Artista”, the “First Prize for a Boy Artist”), and the next year, the twelve-year-old spent time at the studio of the renowned sculptor Alexander Zschokke in Basel.