Retable
(from Latin word retrotabulum, English Altarpiece, Esp. Reredos, ITA. Pala d'altare): Every icon, sculpture or other representation placed for decorative purposes above and behind the altar (altar) of a church. Other terms also attributed "Icon of altar," "altar’s icnostasis," "temple," etc. but should not be, in no way, be confused with what we call temple and sometimes more frequently (and more correctly) iconostasis in the Orthodox Church (icon). Icons of saints on the altar or behind it for the first time appeared in 10-11th century, when the priests began to function, facing the holy place (and thus the altar) and turned back to congregation. In 14th and 15th century, this type of decoration was spread widely, to become finally, in the period of the Counter-Reformation (second half of the 16th century), an essential complement to the altar in almost every Catholic church, usually retable in a form of triptych or faceted (a pointed ends) with a sacra conversazione as a basic performance and with scenes from the Gospels or life of various saints in the base (predela).