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In this article I intend to link the identity appropriation of the azulejo to a source common to most artistic discourse in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. I am convinced the national assumptions concerning the azulejo followed six phases which I have linked to different identity mutations that could be summarized as unceasing historicist approaches, which are characterological and long-term. Historicism prevailed until the end of the nineteenth century. A passion for characterological principles followed, which was conveyed by Reynaldo dos Santos with unsurpassable strength. However, when the Estado Novo’s identity pattern started to decline, art historians focused on researching unchanged structures. First, traces of Portuguese originality, though ephemeral, were sought after. Second, researchers attempted to show that the azulejo is an expression of Portuguese sensibility which, with its ups and downs, remained throughout the centuries. Third, by inventorying and analysing, they tried to integrate the azulejo in the structural attributes of Portuguese art.