Complex sentence: Each character is a portrait of either the donor or a relative of the donor; in the Modena "Lamentation", for instance, Ercole I d'Este is Nicodemus and his wife Eleonora as Maria di Cleofa.
Split into simpler sentences: Each character is a portrait of either the donor or a relative of the donor. For instance in the Modena "Lamentation", Ercole I d'Este is Nicodemus and his wife Eleonora as Maria di Cleofa.