Ever since the launch of LEGO 18+ sets marketed primarily toward adult builders and collectors, the category has produced a wide variety of models from typewriters to guitars intending to attract more customers who might otherwise pass the LEGO store by at the mall. One theme within the overall line, LEGO Art, has introduced some very iconic replicas of famous paintings, such as LEGO Ideas 21333 Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and LEGO 31208 The Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai. But one classic work of art was noticeably missing from the line-up… until now. The recently announced 31213 Mona Lisa brings Leonardo da Vinci’s famous portrait of a demure woman with a mysterious smile to life. The framed Mona Lisa comes with 1,503 pieces and is available starting on October 1st for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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Unboxing the parts and instructions

The set comes in a large square black box with minimal decorations. The name of the set is in large bold letters along the left edge while an image of the finished set is prominently featured. At the bottom of the box is the set number, part count, and 18+ age without the usual band of LEGO elements.

The back of the box shows an assortment of lifestyle images, along with one image showing the set’s dimensions. Like many new larger sets released this year, the box is taped on all four sides and lifts off to reveal the bags and instruction booklet, which comes in a separate envelope.

Inside the box, there are 17 numbered bags of various sizes, 2 bags with extra tan plates, and a single instruction booklet.

As is common with many LEGO 18+ sets, the instruction booklet includes several pages about the set and the LEGO designers, as well as a bit of history about the painting and the artist, Leonardo da Vinci.

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The build

We start the build with one of the neat features of this set. The frame is designed to separate from the art, and could be added to any other LEGO art as long as it matches the dimensions and attachment points. The fancy gold detailed frame is shaped much like an actual wooden frame and is nearly as heavy. Building the frame consists of two mirrored halves joined together. The frame is designed to separate so it can be attached to an art set of your own design. There are over 300 metallic gold elements!

Moving on to the art piece itself, this is similarly constructed out of two halves, with one half including the picture-hanging assembly. The finished base is covered in the 6 16×16 tan plates. One fun detail is a row of black plates along the bottom to show which end goes up during the building.

Now it’s time to begin our replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. Starting at the top, a series of very light blue tiles followed by light blue and azure tiles and plates to make the sky and distant hills. Using tiles of various sizes and orientations gives the sky a cracked look that captures the weathered canvas of the original very well.

The rest of the art base is more of the same, using plates and tiles to create the distant landscape and the contours of the subject. At the center is a pair of clips that will be used to angle her neck in from the edges of her outfit which are raised and made from black bricks.

With the tan “canvas” completely filled in, we go back to the top to begin adding in Mona Lisa’s hair made from reddish-brown and dark brown elements. After the flowing hair, the neck and the collar are next. The middle layer ends with light brown sleeves and hands folded.

Finally, the splayed fingers of one hand and the folded fingers of the other are added, along with her face. The set includes both printed elements for her mouth and eyes, as well as blank elements for her eyes if you want a more bland facial expression.

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The finished model

The finished art piece is very accurate compared with the original, considering the medium, and I appreciate how LEGO made this set using colors that were closer to how the original might have looked when first painted, as opposed to its appearance today — somewhat faded, with many of the colors desaturated with time and exposure to the elements. While the real-life painting is smaller (much to the surprise of many visitors to the Louvre), the choice to increase the LEGO version’s size makes perfect sense from a display point of view, since it enabled the designers to add details that would be much harder to achieve at a smaller size.

Of course, an art set review would not be complete without a picture of the set on the wall. My office/LEGO room is painted in a lovely mocha, which almost feels like a proper museum color in this context.

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Conclusions and recommendations

While this style of art may not be for everyone, if you’re a fan of Renaisssance art I would highly recommend picking this set up. And at $99 for over 1,500 pieces, it’s also a pretty solid parts pack, particularly for all the gold elements as well as the tiles and plates used in the background. Add to that the fact that you can build your own LEGO art using the same attachment points and slap on that dazzling metallic gold frame to give it a touch of class. But the set isn’t entirely perfect. Mona Lisa’s iconic smile doesn’t translate especially well to the printed 2×2 tile — an odd miss for such an important detail. Nevertheless, it’s a worthy entry in the LEGO Art line, whether as a display piece or for the parts.

LEGO 31213 Mona Lisa comes with 1,503 pieces and is available on October 1st for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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