Haydon's diary entry for November 1809 suggested that the 'reference to nature' in the Friezes of the Parthenon demanded a revaluation of the canon of ancient sculpture. Haydon similarly refers to a head by Giotto from the Carmelite Church in Florence, and compares it with the figures in the Friezes of the Parthenon. He remarks on the:
exact resemblance it bore to the heads of the Panathenaic procession as if (and it is certainly evident from this) he had been instructed by the poor Grecian Artists who fled to Italy during the invasion of their country and carried with them what they had seen in Athens - To Nature and to Greece if you want evidence, can you only recur to with any prospect of information. ( Haydon, The Diary, Vol. I, page 166)