The invention relates to a liquid crystal display that incorporates a
laminated retardation layer 10 comprising a combination of a negative
C-plate having a specific chromatic dispersion and a positive A-plate
having a specific chromatic dispersion, used to improve the viewing angle
characteristics thereof, thereby presenting high-contrast images with
high color reproducibility yet with neither interference variations nor
color shifts. The laminated retardation layer 10 is obtained by
lamination of a retardation layer 11 having positive index anisotropy and
an optical axis in a layer plane and a retardation layer 12 having
negative index anisotropy and an optical axis in a normal direction to a
layer plane. A stretched polymer film having inverse chromatic dispersion
that causes retardation defined by an optical path difference between
extraordinary light and ordinary light to become small as wavelength
becomes short is used as the retardation layer 11 having positive index
anisotropy and an optical axis in a layer plane, and a coating layer
having normal chromatic dispersion that causes retardation defined by an
optical path difference between extraordinary light and ordinary light to
become large as wavelength becomes short is used as the retardation layer
12 having negative index anisotropy and an optical axis in a normal
direction to a layer plane.