Retardant

Description

1) A chemical used to slow the drying rate of paint. Retardants were commonly used in the nineteenth century for wet-in-wet techniques. Examples of retardants for linseed oil paints are clove oil, spike oil, lavender oil, rosemary oil, and poppy seed oil. Butyl lactate has been used as a retardant for industrial lacquers.

2) A chemical added to a dye bath to slow the rate of dyeing.

Synonyms and Related Terms

inhibitor; retarder (Br.)

Authority

• Reed Kay, The Painter's Guide To Studio Methods and Materials, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983

• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Hoechst Celanese Corporation, Dictionary of Fiber & Textile Technology (older version called Man-made Fiber and Textile Dictionary, 1965), Hoechst Celanese Corporation, Charlotte NC, 1990

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000