An Altered Masterpiece – The New York Times

In the In Times Past column, David W. Dunlap explores New York Times history through artifacts housed in the Museum of The Times.

On March 29, 1914, The Times published an eight-page Easter section, “Gems of the Altman Collection”; it featured images of 13 paintings that Benjamin Altman, founder of the department store B. Altman & Company, had bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What made the section sensational was that the photos were in color. This was one of the first full-color sections ever published by The Times, and one of the last until the mid-1960s, when The New York Times Magazine began regularly using color. A copy of the Easter section is in the Museum at The Times.

But unknown at the time to The Times or the Metropolitan, there was a big problem with “The Crucifixion,” by Fra Angelico, which was among the paintings presented in the special section. The palm trees, blue sky and hills visible in the painting were not by Fra Angelico. They had been added some time early in the painting’s existence by an unknown artist.

“It is possible that they were added to cover voids created by the removal of two angels that once hovered alongside the cross,” Laurence Kanter and Pia Palladino wrote in “Fra Angelico,” a 2005 monograph. “The removal of the overpainted landscape elements by conservators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1951 significantly altered the appearance of the panel.”

So the 17-inch-wide photo in The Times did not depict “The Crucifixion” as Fra Angelico painted it. And it doesn’t depict “The Crucifixion” as it was restored.

Consider this an overdue correction.