Domenico Riccio (1516-67) was an Italian artist from Verona. He trained with his father, Agostino, initially and then with Giovanni Francesco Carota. Riccio worked mostly in Verona and the surrounding area, painting altarpieces and frescoes. In 1551, he was in Trento, decorating in fresco the façades of two houses and in 1552 he was working for the cathedral in Mantova. Following this, he worked alongside Paolo Veronese on frescoes in the Palladian palace Iseppo Porto. Giorgio Vasari, the artist and biographer, noted that he was 'ottimo musico' (a great musician) and he was a member of the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona from its foundation in 1543. Three of his children, Felice, Giovanni Battista and Cecilia, continued the family tradition and became painters.

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 (1726-1780). 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.