Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846), according to Ruskin, is guilty of disgrace and misguidance in his painting ( Works, 7.231) but 'no person can read his journal without coming to the conclusion that his heart was honest' ( Works, 12.129). In November 1809 Haydon wrote:
Mengs said fifty years ago, that perhaps the statues they then possessed were not the works the Ancients accounted their best, and had Mengs been happy enough to see the Elgin Marbles, he would have been convinced of the truth of his conjecture - it is a strong proof of his judgement to have said such a thing at a time when there was not the most distant conception that any thing superior to the Apollo was in existence - It appears extraordinary that no enthusiastic connoiseur should have thought of visiting Athens - that it should never have entered the head of that useless rhapsodist Winkelmann when Spon and Wheeler had published their descriptions of the beauties of the Parthenon -
Foreigners have said we have no English school; thank God we never have had one - as we now [have] such perfect examples to force us into excellence-
The Romans worked partly on the same system as the Grecians, but without that part of it which urged them to refer to Nature - with none of her accidental beauties to prevent their art being apparent - The old Antique (except the Gladiator and the Laocoon) with the square methodized marble forms to be as compleatly overthrown by the exquisite beauty of the Athenian marbles as ever one system of philosophy was overthrown by another more enlightened - & when they are publickly seen and studied - the World will be of the same opinion - Time only is wanting to confirm my opinion, which is the result of deep reflection, and every hour's experience of their beauties will add to its stability - The English are slow of apprehension, but when once they perceive - no nation in firmer - ( Haydon, The Diary, Vol. I, page 96)
In 1810 Haydon compared the 'Elgin Marbles' with the work of Giotto, and again stressed the importance of nature as a guide.