altarpiece

[awl-ter-pees]

noun

1. a painted or carved screen behind or above the altar or communion table in Christian churches; reredos.

altarpiece

/ ˈɔːltəˌpiːs /

noun

1. a work of art set above and behind an altar; a reredos

Word History and Origins

Origin of altarpiece¹

First recorded in 1635–45; altar + piece

Example Sentences

The nature of optics, or how the eye sees as light’s conduit, is the focus of an altarpiece fragment by Giotto from the San Diego Museum of Art.

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“I’m going to have these symbolic marigolds all the way around the building on the surface of the wall, like you would see in an altarpiece for the Day of the Dead,” Vargas said.

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The wings, Israels said, would have been scraped off when the altarpiece was disassembled and the wing fragments would no longer have made sense.

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Because of both their size and their age, the altarpieces could not be taken out of the museum during the building’s recent overhaul.

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Fifteen years after he arrives in Florence, Leonardo receives a commission for another altarpiece, this time for a monastery just outside town.

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