Ludovico Cardi (1559-1613) was one of the outstanding artists of his generation and his work reflects the complex stylistic cross-currents as Mannerism gave way to Baroque. He was a pupil of Alessandro Allori, but his use of colour and his brushwork demonstrate the influence of Venetian painting, Correggio and Barocci. His surviving paintings include frescoes in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1581–4). From 1604, he was in Rome where he painted St Peter Healing the Lame Man (Basilica di S Pietro). Here he was influenced by Caravaggio and his dramatic use of light, as can be seen in his Ecce Homo (Florence, Pitti). Cigoli also worked as an architect and his principal surviving architectural work is the courtyard of the Palazzo Nonfinito, the 'unfinished palace' in Florence. His unpublished Trattato della prospettiva pratica (Treatise on practical perspective) is in the Uffizi.Cigoli was a friend of Galileo. The Royal Collection contains a number of drawings by Cigoli.

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.

Presented to George III by Lord Cowper