Leonardo da Vinci in Hull

Back in 1985, when I lived in Aberdeen, I went to the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci drawings from the Codex Hammer. I was too young, then, to think about how surprising it was that such a piece of art should end up in a place like Aberdeen.

Cycle forward 27 years, and there is a Leonardo exhibition in my local gallery, the Ferens in Hull. And it's proving amazingly successful. People are queuing around the gallery and out the door and up the street to get in. For a small, provincial gallery like the Ferens, this is a tremendous success.

If you're up this way, it's well worth a look. There are only ten drawings, and they are all small, but the detail in them is simply extraordinary. How he could even see the detail, let alone draw it is remarkable. And that he did so with quills and home-made implements is even more remarkable.