Antonio Moro, or Anthonis Mor (1517-76), was a Dutch portrait painter, considered one of the best of his day. He was the pupil of Jan van Scorel in Utrecht and in 1547 he was registered with the Antwerp guild of painters. He had an international career, working in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and England. In 1549, he is recorded as working for Cardinal Granvelle, bishop of Arras, who became a chancellor for the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (1500-58). Moro's subsequent work for the Hapsburg court involved visits to Spain, Portugal and England. He painted the portrait of Mary Tudor (1554, Madrid, Prado), for which he is said to have received his knighthood, and was appointed painter to Philip of Spain. About 1561 he returned to the Netherlands where he painted portraits of the merchants and humanists of Utrecht and Antwerp as well as some religious and classical subjects. There are a number of paintings and drawings associated with Anthonis Mor in the Royal Collection.

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.