Giacomo Cavedone (1577-1660) was an Italian painter who was born in Sassuolo. When he was 14 years old, he was sent to Bologna to study painting, at the expense of the Commune of Sassuola, in response to an application from his father who argued that this would have 'a good outcome' if Cavedone were able to study with 'a good man for two or three years'. He became a pupil of Malvasia del Passarotti and at the same time attended the academy run by the Carracci family. Here, he first studied under Annibale, and then Lodovico. In 1603, Cavedone went to Venice and completed frescoes in the cloister of S Michele in Bosco. He travelled to Rome briefly in 1610 with Guido Reni, and in 1612-13 worked in S Paolo in Bologna. In 1613, he married. He bought a house in 1614 and obtained Bolognese citizenship in 1615. On the death of Ludovico Carracci in 1619, he was elected caposindaco (director) of the Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives). A series of misfortunes occurred in the following years, however. He fell from the scaffolding in S Salvatore where he was painting, his wife became ill, and his daughter died in the plague of 1630. His work after this time appears to have ceased and he died in 1660 in Bologna.  There are a number of his drawings 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 from Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-80). 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.