Giovanni Francesco Caroto

Giovan Francesco Caroto (Verona, c. 1480 – Verona, 1555) was an Italian painter.

A pupil of Liberale da Verona, following his travels to Mantua and, especially, to Casale Monferrato, Giovan Francesco Caroto gradually moved away from the tradition of the Veronese school of painting to embrace the various artistic currents that were prominent at the time, drawing inspiration from Mantegna, Raphael, Bernardino Luini, and Bramantino. In turn, his art influenced many Veronese painters, such as Francesco Morone and Francesco Torbido.

His works are now preserved worldwide, particularly at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona. It is in this museum that his most famous painting, Portrait of a Child with a Drawing, is displayed, which, due to the originality of its subject, is almost a unicum in the artistic landscape of his century. Other works are found in churches in his hometown, such as San Giorgio in Braida and San Fermo Maggiore, as well as in other cities such as Florence, Modena, Budapest, and Prague. His remains rest in the Santa Maria in Organo church in Verona, alongside those of his brother Giovanni, in the San Nicolò chapel, which, as Vasari recounts, "he had adorned with his paintings."