The notion of a tradition or traditions in art encompass artistic practice, content, aesthetics material handling, museum practice, semiotics etc. The word tradition is derived from the Italian "traditio, the noun from the verb tradere (to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping" 1 Traditions are often found within particular cultures, religions, societies, professions and families.
Long-standing practices that are handed down can be considered 'traditional"
Artforms such as painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, drawing, photography, gold and silversmithing, textiles etc will all have components of practice as fields of knowledge that are 'traditional'. The passing on of traditional practice perpetuates the relevant tradition.
For example; in painting, the preparation of the painting surface i.e., making the frame, stretching the canvas and preparing the canvas for painting are all done according to certain traditions. Painter's who makes their own gesso for sealing the canvas, will do so according to particular traditions which will include the making of rabbit skin glue.
Painters do not have to follow traditional practice when preparing a canvas, linen or cotton surface, however many will argue the benefit of using traditional methods.
This should be enough to give you an idea of the way things work in relation to working toward an understanding of or establishing a sense of how to contextualise the idea of what a tradition is so that can you know whether or not something challenges it.
Traditional Landscape
The term 'Convention'; on the other hand; loosely refers to the way things have always been or usually are done.
"Convention in art is a term used to describe an accepted way of representing something, either formally or symbolically. For example there is a tacit consent when looking at Florentine Renaissance painting, to interpret linear perspective as indicating-depth and recession." 1
In the above image 3 x horizontal lines, 1 x vertical line and 1 x oval shape combine to create an image that can clearly be interpreted and read as a representation of a face. This relies heavily on the accepted conventions that underpin the genre of portraiture.
- http://www.arcyart.com/ad-convention.htm