MONA NATURE Mona Lisa and the four Elements

From the time of Leonardo's death up to today the attempts to identify the woman portrayed in the painting known as Gioconda or Mona Lisa or, more recently, to identify the places depicted in the landscape behind her, have not been ever exhausted. But the more the critical efforts multiplied, the more the results became elusive and uncertain. Is it really only a identifying issue the 'mystery' of the Mona Lisa or is there something else? This essay deals with the hypothesis that Leonardo's Mona Lisa would be not a real portrait but an allegorical representation. Of a being whom Leonardo loved passionately more than any other in the world: Nature.