Self-portrait with his Wife Placida

The Carotos belonged to the parish of Santa Maria in Organo in Verona. Giovanni was born in its district, an uncle of his served as the church's chaplain, and his elder brother, the painter Giovanni Francesco, had a chapel there of his own, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, which he decorated himself and where he was buried. Its altarpiece was Giovanni's work. The biographer Giorgio Vasari describes the Virgin above the clouds and, below, Giovanni's portrait from life and that of his wife, Placida.

These two kneeling figures are what is left of it. A fire destroyed the altarpiece, and the museum points out that the fragment still carries the marks. Husband and wife knelt at the bottom as the donors, beneath the Virgin in glory and a group of saints. According to Vasari, Giovanni too was buried in Santa Maria in Organo.