A Serendipitous Return: Lavinia Fontana’s lost Miniature at Strawberry Hill House

Saturday 25 January – 23 April 2025, 11am-4pm, Saturday-Wednesday

A remarkable discovery has brought another lost treasure back to Strawberry Hill House after more than a century, this time a 19th-century drawing led to its identification.

The newly discovered artwork, a miniature once believed by Walpole to depict Bianca Capello, has now been attributed to the accomplished artist Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614). 

Bianca Capello (1548-1587) was one of Walpole’s great heroines, her adventurous life inspiring both his Gothic masterpiece novel The Castle of Otranto (1764) and his tragedy play The Mysterious Mother (1791) Perhaps most famously, Walpole’s fascination with her even led him to coin the term “serendipity” while researching her Venetian coat of arms.

This exquisite miniature, was discovered in a private collection. Its return marks another triumph in the ongoing quest to reunite Walpole’s dispersed treasures with their original home.

Tickets included in General admission.