Visual Codes and Conventions in the Painting: George Robinson Welcomes

Visual texts can be seen to be an get down by their creators to represent particular ideologies to their viewers. It is the viewers attitudes and values however, that determine the modern-day essence of the image. The painting George Robinson welcomes Natives to Wybalenna, is a Colonial document portraying the Christianizing of indigenous throng on Flinders Island. Visual codes and conventions employed in the image, such as pose and framing depict the entwined values of white, patriarchal and Christian ideologies of the 19th Century. However, trade in how society identifies itself, also changes the dominant ideology in its culture. Subsequently, the historic context of Post-Colonial attitudes and values in contemporary society, evoke a contemporary meaning in Robinsons painting, one of racial and religious prejudice. The convention of locating is vital in constructing the Colonial ideology of Robinson?s image. It has the potential to propose the viewer with visual associations , which translate to language in the form of binary program oppositions. For instance, the most c...