reredos

Etymology

From Middle English reredos, from Anglo-Norman reredos, areredos; equivalent to rere (“rear”) + French dos (“back”).

noun

1. (chiefly Western Christianity) A screen or decoration behind the altar in a church, usually depicting religious iconography or images, akin to the iconostasis of the Eastern Churches.
   Coordinate term: iconostasis
   A bad reredos will ruin the best church ever designed; and, although a good reredos cannot convert a bad church into a good one, it may do much to lessen the offensiveness of its badness. 1871, The Sacristy: A Quarterly Review of Ecclesiastical Art and Literature, volume 1, London: John Hodges, page 246
   Confusion has reigned in scholarly interpretation, however, because the dark-colored leaves have shown through the succeeding coats of paint across the reredos, interfering with the later scenes. 1998, Paul V. M. Flesher, “Rereading the Reredos: David, Orpheus, and Messianism in the Dura Europa Syngogue”, in Dān Ûrman, Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher, editors, Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery, page 363
   There seem to be no remains of wooden reredoses of the fourteenth century, though there are a number of examples in stone. 2007, F. E. Howard, English Church Woodwork, page 137
2. The back of an open fire-hearth, in medieval halls.