In soft rich colors, with sseemingly artless simplicity, the artist depicted the appearance of the Blessed Virgin to three children of Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Dominating the picture is a white-robed figure of the Virgin standiong as on a cloud, hands pressed together in prayer. Below, wrapt in adoration, kneel three children. A rosary depends from the Virgin's hands.
It is as if Medina had been there where the three children saw the heavenly lady descend from the sky to stand in all her glowing beauty before them. In the fooreground toward the left, the two little girls and the boy are grouped in a kneeling position before the sacred lady, theiir eyes directed to her haloed presence, half enveloped in a bluish cloud floating above the green fields. Nearby sheep and a pet goat are pasturing, adding rural peace to the spirit-lifting scene, which needs no renewed observation to inspire spirituality. Infinitely tender and moving is the expression of both the Madonna and the children, who gaze in ecstasy upon the ineffable beauty of the apparition.
When one studies the canvas, it becomes increasingly difficult to analyze tthe charm that pervades the entire scene stimulating the keenest pleasure and deepest feeling of inner emotion for both the spiritual and artistic in nature. One cannot determine whether the painter's secret lies in the luminous coloring whose bright tones lend a cheerful aspect to the whole, or if it is the remarkable effect of aerial space surrounding the figures that conveys the disarming sense of reality. One is, however, conviinced that beyond consideration of technical achievement, the qualities with which Medina has imbued the canvas are inspired of his humble understanding, which enlightens us in its poetic expression of suggestive power and penetrating sweetness.
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