NEW YORK, NY.- Two examples of the most celebrated subjects by the 18th century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-88) will appear in the Old Master Through Modern Prints sale at Swann Auction Galleries of New York on May 2.

A master of the medium, Piranesi’s two great muses were views of ancient Rome and fantastical prisons.

Veduta del Pantheon d’Agrippa, an etching from 1761, fits into the first of these subjects, depicting the majesty of the Pantheon in fine detail, complete with figures wandering its domed roof and marveling at its architecture below. It carries an estimate of $3,000 to $5,000.

The Well is Plate 13 in a series of 16 etchings from 1745-50 depicting the dark and cavernous scenes of prisons, and is estimated at $12,000 to $18,000.

The series was hugely influential on not just Romanticism and Surrealism, and is referred to in De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.

The Roman scenes became popular among the rich undertaking the Grand Tour, and were seen as forming part of the fabric of the Age of Enlightenment and intellectual re-awakening.