reredos

alttarikaappi, alttariseinä A screen or decoration behind the altar in a church, usually depicting religious iconography or images.
1871, The Sacristy: A Quarterly Review of Ecclesiastical Art and Literature, Volume 1, John Hodges, London, http://books.google.com.au/books?id=WlQtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA246&dq=%22reredos%22%7C%22reredoses%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9hOKUbb6PIW5iAfAhYH4Ag&redir_esc=yv=onepage&q=%22reredos%22%7C%22reredoses%22&f=false page 246,

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.