Carlo was the son of the scenic designer Giuseppe Brioschi (died in Vienna in 1856) and father of the similarly engaged Othmar (1854–1912) and Anton (1855–1920). He was a student of Leopold Kupelwieser, Thomas Ender, and Franz Steinfeld at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. In 1853, he worked in Paris. From 1856 to 1886, he worked with the Vienna State Opera.

With Johann Kautsky and Hermann Burghart he established the cooperative enterprise of "Brioschi, Burghart und Kautsky, k.u.k. Hoftheatermaler in Wien", which employed dozens of carpenters, blacksmiths, mechanics and clerks in addition to their painters; among whom were Georg Janny, Leopold Rothaug [de], Ferdinand Brunner and Alfons Mucha. The studio received many orders from abroad as well as locally. Among their regular customers was the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Brioschi died in Vienna in 1895.

• Robin Thurlow Lacy: Brioschi, Carlo. In: A biographical dictionary of scenographers : 500 B.C. to 1900 A.D. Greenwood Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-313-27429-0, pp. 82–83.