One of the greatest artists ever is back on display in NI

Once again, for the third time in recent decades, works of art by the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci are available to view in the Province.

The display at the Ulster Museum in Belfast consists of sketches by da Vinci, who died 500 years ago, in 1519.

The images, which have been brought over to mark that anniversary, have been mounted in a darkened gallery in the museum. Most of the time they are kept in light-proof boxes at Windsor Castle to protect them from damage due to exposure.

The exhibition is one of 12 that are being held at the same time across the UK, from the Royal Collection, which has the largest da Vinci holding in the world, consisting of more than 500 drawings.

This is a wonderful initiative, that makes use of largely hidden treasures. What is the point of great works of art if they are never seen? Now they are being seen, in a way that is accessible to millions of people.

Da Vinci’s drawings are some of the earliest scientific explorations of the physical world. As is apparent at the Ulster Museum display, which runs until early May, he closely observed the human body and its movements and capacities.

He was also an inventor, map drawer, sculptor and portrait painter, whose most famous work, the Mona Lisa, is seen by millions of people each year in Paris’s Louvre museum.

Now there will be several months in which the public, including school pupils, will be able to study and savour images by a man who helped usher in the modern, technological world that we enjoy today.

Meanwhile, in a happy coincidence, while da Vinci is on display in Belfast, a Northern Ireland actor Stephen Hagan has been granted the honour of playing the great man in the Netflix drama series Medici.