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A reredos (/ ˈ r ɪər ˌ d ɒ s, ˈ r ɪər ɪ-, ˈ r ɛ r ɪ-/ REER-dos, REER-ih-, RERR-ih-) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term reredos may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for example very grand carved ...
The name derives from the Cosmati, the leading family workshop of craftsmen in Rome who created such geometrical marble decorations. The style spread across Europe, where it was used in the most prestigious churches; the high altar of Westminster Abbey, for example, is decorated with a Cosmatesque marble floor. [1] [2]
In the first several centuries of large Christian churches being built, the altar tended to be further forward (towards the congregation) in the sanctuary than in the later Middles Ages (a position to which it returned in the 20th century) and a large altarpiece would often have blocked the view of a bishop's throne and other celebrants, so decoration was concentrated on other places, with ...
Except in Solemn Mass, a priest celebrating Tridentine Mass remains at the altar the whole time after saying the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. The rite of Dedication of a church and of the altar points out that the celebration of the Eucharist is "the principal and the most ancient part of the whole rite, because the celebration of the ...
Many churches have an additional altar placed further forward in the church, as well as altars in chapels. The altar of a Catholic church may be made of stone, often marble. In most Protestant churches altars are of wood, symbolic of the table of the Last Supper rather than of a sacrificial altar, and may be called the Communion table. [34]
Detailed image of the central piece of altar. As in almost all cases of Cranach Post-Reformation altarpieces, there is also a great deal of Christocentric Lutheran symbolism, Christian allegory and Protestant theological concept of Five solas depicted in the Weimar altarpiece, with each image referring to salvation alone in Jesus, emphasizing the sacrifice of Jesus in Solus Christus.
“Antependium” is the word used for elaborate fixed altar frontals, which, in large churches and especially in the Ottonian art of the Early Medieval period, were sometimes of gold studded with gems, enamels and ivories, and in other periods and churches often carved stone, painted wood panel, stucco, or other materials, such as azulejo tiling in Portugal.
Altar cloth in the Roman rite. An altar cloth is used in the Christian liturgy to cover the altar. It serves as a sign of reverence as well as a decoration and a protection of the altar and the sacred vessels. In the orthodox churches it is covered by the antimension, which also contains the relics of saints.