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He believes that the work of art incorporates images inspired by the literary works of Roman poet Horace and Florentine poet Petrarch, a technique called 'invention'.
"The composition of the Mona Lisa is striking. Why does Leonardo have an attractive woman sitting on a balcony, while in the background there is an entirely different world that is vast and barren?" asks Ross Kilpatrick.
According to Kilpatrick, the painting alludes to Horace's Ode 1. 22 and two sonnets by Petrarch, all of which celebrate a devotion to a smiling young woman, with vows to love and follow the woman anywhere in the world, from damp mountains to arid deserts - the regions portrayed in the background of Mona Lisa.
He also reveals that da Vinci was aware of the poets and their works and the bridge seen in the background of the Mona Lisa has been identified as the same one from Petrarch's hometown of Arezzo.
"The Mona Lisa was made at a time when great literature was well known. It was quoted, referenced and celebrated," Kilpatrick added.
His findings have now been published in the Italian journal MEDICEA.
That's all I seem to get in the last couple of weeks. Hmmm. Oh well, I was just trying to say how such references in the Mona Lisa could have seemed but a homage to friends, peers, and those most affecting the artists life and work. Musicians like Mozart always did some variations on others themes to make fun or comment either in jest or in delight, even in jazz or hip hop such trends remain in practice. In literature, such authors often were making references to the establishment in satire or the use of historical comparisons.
Not a lot of this practice remains, as having a mind can classify one as 'armed and dangerous' today. Perhaps da Vinci was just amusing himself and the few able to see the observation. Look at how long it took the establishment to see this one.