An early biographer, Pierre-Jean Mariette, suggested that when the lace industry began to falter, Carriera had to find a new means of providing for herself and her family.

Prominent foreign visitors to Venice, such as diplomats and young sons of the nobility on their Grand Tour, sought out her work.

[5] The portraits of her early period include those of Maximilian II of Bavaria; Frederick IV of Denmark; the "Artist and her Sister Naneta" (Uffizi); and Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, who acquired a large collection of her pastels.

[10] Carriera's diary of these 18 months in Paris was later published by her devoted admirer, Antonio Zanetti, the Abbé Vianelli, in 1793.

Carriera, with her sister Giovanna in tow, visited Modena, Parma, and Vienna, and was received with much enthusiasm by rulers and courts.

While there, the Emperor Charles VI became her benefactor and fully committed to supporting her work, amassing a large collection of more than 150 of her pastels.

[8] The works Carriera executed there were later to form the basis of the large collection in the Alte Meister Gallery in Dresden.

[citation needed] After her sister Giovanna's death in 1738, Carriera fell into a deep depression, which was not aided by the loss of her eyesight some years later (her eyes might have been damaged by painting miniatures in her youth).

[1] There is speculation that the French painter Jean Steve encouraged her to make miniatures on ivory for the lids of snuffboxes,[8] and that she received instruction in oil technique from Diamantini.

[14] Carriera shared her talents with her sisters Giovana and Angela and later in life had female students such as Marianna Carlevarijs, Margherita Terzi, and Felicità Sartori.

[10] Although negatively dubbed ‘The Rococo’ by Maurice Quai, a follower of the neoclassicist Jacques-Louis David,[8] Carriera played an important role in popularizing the style in France and later England, where King George III was a major collector of her work.

[citation needed] Despite her renown and contribution to an established manner, Carriera is "often treated as an exception, a rarity as a woman artist"[15] and very often ignored.

[16] The Rococo style emphasized the use of pastel colors; spontaneous brush strokes, dancing lights, subtle surface tonalities and a soft, elegant and charming approach to subject matter.

She was known for dragging the sides of white chalk across an under-drawing of darker tones to capture the shimmering texture of lace and satin.

These allegories were represented by beautiful, nymph like and barely clothed women holding symbols that referenced the meaning of the piece.