Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674-1755) was a Roman artist, who worked for most of his career for the papacy, but who is best-known for his caricature drawings of courtiers at the papal court and of people on the Grand Tour. His early training was with his father, who was also a painter, and in 1695 he won a competition at the Accademia di S Luca. In 1708, he was appointed painter to the Camera Apostolica by Pope Clement XI. Amongst his works were a set of landscapes in the gallery of the papal palace at Castelgandolfo, painted in 1747. He received the cross of a knight (perhaps this is what he is wearing in the self-portrait?) in 1710 from the duke of Parma, after he inherited the title from his father and grandfather who had been granted it by the king of Portugal. Ghezzi was also a draughtsman, theatrical designer and musician. Lione Pascoli, his biographer, noted Ghezzi’s many talents, including that he carved in copper and in stone, had studied medicine and dissected many cadavers, he understood about architecture and created wonderful fireworks for the dauphin of France in Piazza Navona in 1729. 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.