Acanthus
Architecture: A prickly plant of the Mediterranean region with large, deeply cleft and scalloped leaves which are freely imitated on the capitals of the Corinthian and Composite orders and often used, in varying degrees of abstraction, to ornament moldings, brackets, friezes and so on.
Altarpiece
Architecture: A painted or sculpted panel or shrine placed behind and above an altar, also called a "reredos" or "retable." 14th and 15th century altarpieces are often very complicated, consisting of several panels or separate groups of sculpture.
An altarpiece consisting of three panels is called a tryptych, when it has more than three panels it is called a "poylptych". Some altarpieces have a decorated base, or pedella, and have "shutters" or "wings" which can be opened to reveal a series of "transformations" or "stages" to reveal other paintings or sculptures. The shutters are usually painted in rather subdued colors on the outside - monochrome imitations of sculpture ("grisailles") being common in northern Europe - but when opened up for the feast days of the Church, they offer a brilliant and sumptuous display of color.
Now, which of the words above are in the scrabble dictionary?
Acanthus is defined as "a prickly herb."
Altar is in there, but not altarpiece. This seems silly, as one could surely spell "piece" on the end of "altar"!
Frieze is defined as a "coarse woolen fabric." (Which is not the same as the art "frieze" - the middle member of an entablure."
Reredos - an ornamental screen behind an altar
Retable - a raised shelf behind an altar.
Tryptych - is not in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th edition! Neither is polyptych, which is more understandable.
Pedella - is not in the Scrabble dictionary. Nor is grisaille.
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Bibliography
From Abacus to Zeus, A Handbook of Art History
James Smith Pierce, 1977
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