Elgin Marbles
Keats's inspiration for the topic was not limited to Haydon, but embraced many contemporary sources. He may have recalled his experience with the Elgin Marbles and their influence on his sonnet "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles". Keats was also exposed to the Townley, Borghese, and Holland House vases and to the classical treatment of subjects in Robert Burton's "The Anatomy of Melancholy". Many contemporary essays and articles on these works shared Keats's view that classical Greek art was both idealistic and captured Greek virtues. Although he was influenced by examples of existing Greek vases, in the poem he attempted to describe an ideal artistic type, rather than a specific original vase.