Antonio Franchi was born near Lucca and worked both in Lucca and Florence. In 1674, he moved to Florence where, and in 1686, he was appointed as the official portrait painter to Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere, the mother of Gran Duke Cosimo, and produced many portraits of the Florentine aristocracy. Franchi adhered to the tradition of court portraiture established by French artists like Pierre Mignard yet introduced to it a novel informality and a sharper sense of character.