Orazio Gonzaga, Marchese di Solferino was the third son of Luigi Alessandro Gonzaga, Marchese di Castiglione (d. 1548), in turn a younger son of Rodolpho, Marchese di Luzzara (1451-1495), younger son of Marchese Lodovico III Gonzaga of Mantua. On the death of the Marchese di Castiglione in 1548, his fiefs were distributed among his three sons, Orazio receiving Solferino strategically placed south of Lake Garda some twenty miles north west of Mantua. For many years Gonzaga was attached to the court of the Emperor Maximillian II. He served at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and two years later came to terms with his vassels at Solferino where his rights had been disputed. He died in Mantua in 1589, leaving Solferino not to the children of his elder brothers but to his cousin, the reigning Duke of Mantua.

An attribution to Giovanni Battista Bertani (circa 1516-1576) has been suggested. Bertani trained under Giulio Romano, and after his master's death became the principal architect in Mantua