Self-portrait of Raphael
According to LaCroix, Nicholas de Brabant studied painting with the Italian artist Raphael in the early sixteenth century.
It was from Raphael that Nick learned how to thicken his paints using blood. Awareness of this technique enabled him later to use it as an excuse for having bottles of blood in his refrigerator when they were discovered by Internal Affairs detectives in the episode, "Killer Instinct". The circumstance nevertheless continued to perplex his partner, Don Schanke, who eventually brought the matter up when discussing Nick with LaCroix in "Close Call". The connection with Raphael was revealed by LaCroix's sotto voce remark on hearing about the bottled blood from Schanke.
Raffaello Sanzio[]
Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520) was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. He is usually known by his first name alone, "Raphael" being the anglicized form of his name.
Raphael was enormously productive; and despite his death at thirty-seven, a large body of his work remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican: its frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central work of his career. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was designed by him and executed from his drawings by the many artists in his workshop, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models.
- Historical information is adapted from the Wikipedia article on Raphael.