Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-96) was an architect and painter. He was born near Lugano but spent much of his youth in Bologna where his father, Tebaldo Tibaldi, was an architect. He had moved to Rome by 1549 when he received payment for decorations for the funeral of Pope Paul III. He worked on decorations in Castel Sant'Angelo and the church of S. Luigi dei Francesi, and his last commission in Rome was for decoration of the façade and loggia of Cardinal Giovanni Poggi's villa outside the Porta del Popolo. From 1553/4 to 1561 Tebaldi worked in Loreto, Bologna and Ancona. Then, in December 1561, he was appointed official architect of the City of Milan. For the next 25 years his principal patron was the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo. He was appointed architect of Milan cathedral in 1567, and had responsibility for making designs for stained glass when required. When Philip II of Spain invited him to work on the decoration of the Escorial he resigned from his post as cathedral architect in December 1585. He was back in Milan by 6 March 1596 and died on 27 May.

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.