Giorgio Vasari

“ Among this crowd is an extraordinary variety of admirably executed heads, and it is obvious that Ercole laboured with infinite pains to make them all as different as possible one from another, so that they should not resemble each other in any manner. There are likewise certain figures bursting into tears of sorrow, which prove clearly how earnest were the efforts made by this artist to imitate nature. Very touching is the swooning of the Madonna likewise, and still more so is the aspect of the Maries, as they turn towards her with looks full of compassion ”

“ Ercole was somewhat eccentric in character, and it was his custom when he was at work to refuse every one, whether painters or others, permission to see his labours; he was therefore much disliked in Bologna by the artists of that city, who have, indeed, always been moved by envy to the hatred of strangers invited thither to work; [7] nay, they sometimes exhibit the same feeling in rivalry among themselves, but this may indeed be considered a vice common to the professors of our arts in all places. ”

“ Our Lady is surrounded by the Apostles, who stand in very beautiful attitudes, and among them are six figures, which are the portraits of persons, declared, by those acquainted with them, to be most animated likenesses. In the same work our artist painted his own portrait, with that of Domenico Garganelli. the owner of the chapel, who, when the whole was completed, for the love he bore to Ercole, and moved by the praises which he heard bestowed upon the work, presented to the master one thousand livres at Bologna. It is said that Ercole devoted twelve years to this work ”