An image display (A) comprises a display unit (1) such as a liquid crystal panel, a light source (3) such as a backlight, a light source control section (5), a video signal processing section (7) for outputting a signal to control the display unit in accordance with an input signal (S1), and a control section (11) for controlling the whole including light source control and video image control. The control section (11) has a video-image analyzing block (15) for analyzing a video image on the basis of the input signal (S1), a target value setting block (17) for setting a target value of an amount of light generated by the light source upon receiving an analysis result (S2), and a controlled-amount determining block (21) for, upon receiving a target value (S3), determining a speed at which the light source is controlled, and for outputting a compensation parameter (S4) to the video signal processing section (7) while notifying the light source control section of a set luminance (S5). On receiving the set luminance value (S5), the light source control section (5) outputs a light amount control signal (S6) to the light source. Thereby, a technique which is capable of reducing power consumption in image display without causing any visual discomfort can be provided.