Abstract
Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the Portuguese state follows the international movement for organizing public museums of art as places for the instruction of artists, workers, students and the public. The major museological initiatives value above all the purpose of teaching and the museums vivify as places of collection and experimentation. This secular tendency, revisited through the regulations of five model cases, suffered a reverse from the 1880s when a museological conception that exalts contemplation and enjoyment as fundamental values and mitigates instruction and experimental research is announced.
Keywords:
museology; industrial and commercial museums; National Museum of Fine Arts; contemplation; hoarding