E-viri
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Melissa Dabakis
Republics and empires, 08/2021Book Chapter
On 3 November 1860, the New York Illustrated News published an image of their ‘Special Artist’ Thomas Nast in a red shirt, baggy trousers, and cocked hat (Figure 3.1). Posing as one of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s devoted soldiers, known as I Mille (The Thousand), Nast joined the general’s forces in Palermo, Sicily on 21 June 1860. Travelling with the troops, comprised of Italians as well as an international corps of volunteers (many of whom were writers, poets, and artists), he made his way across the Straits of Messina to Calabria, and north to Naples.¹ In this studio portrait, engraved from a
