Aspects of the invention can provide an image display device that can include light sources provided, respectively, for regions obtained by dividing an image forming region of an electro-optic modulator into plural regions to irradiate corresponding regions, and a light source control portion that performs lighting control on the light sources. The light source control portion can perform the lighting control on the light sources for the respective region independently in sync with writing of image data to the electro-optic modulator, and the lighting control can be performed in such a manner that the light source corresponding to at least one region among the plural regions is kept unlit in a writing period for a screenful of image data.