The study presents research on the iconography of popular festivals in Cândido Portinari, identifying how images create meaning for the understanding of popular culture and its symbolic expressions. Thus, it was necessary to present the paintings painted by Portinari that characterize the sub-theme festivals, more specifically, the screens related to the carnival. We were understand its iconography the Portinari in a pedagogical dimension focused on physical education. This is a study of the iconographic type evolved from observation and description of the images on screens, as well as the interpretation of what they allow to reveal, ensuring objective analysis and subjective material collection. This research, by venturing to Brazilian popular culture, reaffirms the idea that the body images in festive Portinari are dense source of research and teaching resource for the area of physical education and deserve to be leveraged in the process of training of students.
Carnival; Portinari; Physical Education