The identity of a people and of a civilization is reflected and concentrated in what has been created by the mind—in what is known as “culture.” If this identity is threatened with extinction, cultural life grows correspondingly more intense, more important, until culture itself becomes the living value around which all people rally. – Milan Kundera, “The Tragedy of Central Europe.” New York Review of Books.

Raphael. The Parnassus. 1511. Fresco.