Leonardo da Vinci, the Florentine painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and scientist, was the most gifted and versatile genius of the Renaissance. The illegitimate son of a notary, he trained with Andrea del Verroccio in Florence then moved to Milan in 1482 where he worked mainly for Lodovico Sforza. Here he painted The Virgin of the Rocks (1483-5, Paris, Louvre) and the Last Supper (c.1498) on the wall of the refectory in Santa Maria delle Grazie. When the French invaded Milan in 1499, he left for Florence and in 1504-5 painted his most famous work, the Mona Lisa (Paris Louvre). He also started the wall painting of the Battle of Anghiari (1503–6) in the Palazzo Vecchio, where he worked in rivalry with Michelangelo. The work was unfinished and was painted over by GiorgioVasari in 1557. From 1516, da Vinci lived under the protection of the French King Francis I at Amboise. His 19 notebooks contain detailed scientific drawings, including plans for a helicopter-like flying machine, a tank, and a submarine. The Royal Collection has a large number of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.

This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series).Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.