Federico Zuccario(c. 1540-1609) and his older brother Taddeo were both painters from Urbino who settled in Rome. Amongst other commissions, they decorated the Farnese family palace in Rome and their villa at Caparola. Federico also worked in Venice for Cardinal Giovanni Grimani in his chapel in S. Francesco della Vigna. He was in Florence in 1565, where he was elected to the Accademia del Disegno (Drawing Academy) and painted festive decorations for the wedding celebrations of Francesco de' Medici and Joanna of Austria. When Taddeo died in 1566, Federico returned to Rome and took over his studio and commissions, including the decoration of the Sala Regia in the Vatican. In 1573/4 he travelled to England, where he is thought to have painted the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers, including Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. He returned to Italy and worked in Venice, Loreto and Rome, then in 1585 to 1588 he went to Spain to work for Philip II in the Escorial. When he returned to Rome, he was elected the first president of the new Accademia di S. Luca which was founded in 1593. When he died, he left his house (now the Biblioteca Hertziana), which he had designed himself, to the Accademia. He also wrote a treatise on art theory, L'idea de'pittori, scultori, ed architetti, published in 1607.

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.