Caroto (also Carotis) was a pupil of Liberale to whom he remained true in his early work. In Mantua, he came into personal contact with Mantegna, which lead to a modification of his style. He also adopted ideas from Titian and Raphael. Berenson describes him as an eclecticist. His great pupil, Veronese, seems to have benefited from this.
Caroto trained in the workshop of Liberale da Verona, later becoming assistant to Mantegna. While Liberale and Mantegna influenced the artist in the formative years of his career, in Caroto’s more mature works we see the unmistakable impact of Raphael and Lorenzo Costa.
This painting was formerly known as the Portrait of Isabella d’Este.
Sophonisba was the daughter of a Carthaginian general at the time of the second Punic war. She married a prince of neighbouring Numidia, allied to Rome, and succeeded in alienating him from his Roman masters. But he was captured by another Numidian leader Masinissa, who in turn fell in love with Sophonisba, and likewise married her. To prevent the loss of a second ally from the same cause the Roman general Scipio demanded that she be surrendered and sent captive to Rome. Her husband, not daring to defy Scipio, sent her a cup of poison which she drank.
Sophonisba’s death is a popular theme among Baroque painters of Italy and northern Europe.
