[1] Like much of Mantegna's output after 1495 it is in monochrome, linked to contemporary sculpture and also part of the trend for illusion and trompe-l'œil favoured by the Mantuan court and especially by Isabella d'Este.

The Cornaro family was said to be descended from the Cornelia gens of ancient Rome; the same cardinal signed himself "Marcus Cardinalis Cornelius" in a letter asking Francesco II Gonzaga for a work from Mantegna, who was the latter's court painter at the time.

[2] The chosen subject was from the history of the Cornelii, specifically the arrival of the goddess Cybele's image in Rome during the Second Punic War, as told in Ovid, Appian and Livy.

The Delphic Oracle requested that the most worthy Roman be sent to collect it and so the senate had chosen Africanus's cousin Scipio Nasica for the role.

Garavaglia cites a spoken assertion by Roberto Longhi that the painting could have been accompanied by the two smaller monochrome works Sophonisba and Tuccia.