There has been much in 
artistic representation that is 
conventional. Spectators have 
tended either to be unaware of 
these conventions or not to 
realize that there might be 
other methods of 
representation. The ancient 
Egyptians perhaps did not 
realize that their mode of 
representing the human figure
--part frontal view, part profile 
view--was a matter of 
convention and only one of 
many possible ways to 
represent it. The early Greeks 
(circa 600 B.C.) probably did not 
recognize their way of 
rendering the human figure in 
paintings and statues as a 
convention but thought of it as 
the only true way to do so. It is 
possible that pre-Renaissance 
painters and some later 
painters did not realize that 
their paintings of infant faces 
were simply smaller likenesses 
of adult faces and that this was 
a matter of convention. Yet one 
would also think that in such 
cases both artists and 
spectators would have realized 
that the painting differed from 
the object painted in certain 
respects and that this 
realization would have given 
rise to a vague feeling of 
dissatisfaction with the 
painting. In contemporary art, 
an example of convention is 
the use of streaks behind 
figures in cartoons to convey 
an impression of rapid motion, 
a convention that likely arose 
from looking at photographs of 
rapidly moving objects. Another 
example, found in some 
cartoons and drawings, is the 
use of lines to indicate color 
differences, such as the use of 
outline to indicate a giraffe’s 
colored spots. John M. Kennedy 
of the University of Toronto 
reports that members of New 
Guinea’s Songe tribe do not 
understand this usage.