Johann Carl Loth apprenticed under his father, Bavarian court painter Johann Ulrich Loth, who had been deeply influenced by Roman painting of the 1600s. Johann Carl himself went to Rome at some point after 1653. By 1656 he was in Venice, where he remained for life and became one of the most well known Venetian painters of his day. In Venice, Loth worked under Giovanni Battista Langetti, a follower
