Le parlement illustré. (Auto)portrait de groupe, faits divers et «grandes individualités» (1860-1915)

The illustrated parliament. (Self-)portrait of the group, faits divers and “grand personalities” (1860-1915). Through the study of communication networks that make extensive recourse to visual culture and several generations of illustrated periodicals, this essay aims, first of all, to critically discuss recent interpretations that insist on solemnity and gravitas in the (self)-representation of elected representatives in post-unification Italy. It suggests a different analysis and a different periodization regarding the light, seductive and spectacular ways that the Italian parliamentary class was presented, and presented itself, in the public space. As a second point, it intends to demonstrate how, in the face of a progressive construction of a negative political discourse around parliament, from 1848 (and in particular from 1860-1861) there was a strong attention on and curiousity about the figures and stories – public and private – of parliamentarians. Those figures were involved, sometimes without their volition, in melodramatic mediatization and celebrity politics.