reredos

noun

1. A screen or decoration behind the altar in a church, usually depicting religious iconography or images, akin to the iconostasis of the Eastern Churches.

   “Near-synonym: retable (often synonymous)”

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “There seem to be no remains of wooden reredoses of the fourteenth century, though there are a number of examples in stone.”

2. The back of an open fire-hearth, in medieval halls and in some later architecture inspired by them.