Art Spectrum Ultramarine Blue is a versatile, rich, semi-transparent brilliant blue. Like many colours, its name is Latin and translates as ‘Beyond the sea’. Thanks to French chemist, Jean Baptiste Guimet who created synthetic Ultramarine in 1828. Originally it was made from the milling of lapis lazuli. It was one of the most prized pigments used to great effect throughout the late Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance, during which periods it was used extensively by monks in their illuminated manuscripts as well in panel and fresco paintings.