A educação estética da nação e a “Campanha do Bom Gosto” de António Ferro (1940-1949)

Abstract

The “Good Taste Campaign” was set in motion by António Ferro, director of the National Propaganda Bureau, in 1940, following the Centenary Commemorations, constituting a cultural initiative whose assumed purpose was to create an aesthetic awareness among the Portuguese people. Embracing very different interventions and initiatives, it sought to establish an aesthetic model that created a façade for the nation, presenting it as a civilized country, in opposition to a country of revolutions, simultaneously modern and traditional.This article analyzes the campaign, result of an authoritarian and dictatorial political context, the New State, finding out its origins, formats and intentions and discovering the marks left in the democratic, XXI century Portugal and on its identity.