Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) was a painter from Bologna. Giampietro Zanotti, the painter and art historian, described him as a good man with an honest manner who liked to play the lute when he was taking a break from his painting. His brother Petronio was a musician. Franceschini was the favourite pupil of Carlo Cignani and a fellow pupil, Luigi Quaini, later became a close collaborator. Franceschini worked in Genoa, Modena, Piacenza and Rome. Although his work was in considerable demand from foreign clients, he disliked leaving Bologna for long. His main foreign patron was Prince Adam John of Liechtenstein who, in 1692, commissioned him to paint 26 canvasses for his palace near Vienna. The original request was for frescoes, but was amended when Franceschini refused to leave Bologna. Zanotti noted that the artist had so much work that he had to paint even at night. There are a number of drawings by Franceschini 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.