Surprise me

A sheet of regular polygons, among them the hexagon, the pentagon, the octagon and the twelve-sided figure, each shown with the circles and crossing arcs of its compass construction and its corners marked in red.
Room
Size
View

Golden Age

Compass Work

No. 12 of 20 · free · 300 dpi

What you seeA sheet of regular polygons, among them the hexagon, the pentagon, the octagon and the twelve-sided figure, each shown with the circles and crossing arcs of its compass construction and its corners marked in red.

What it meansGeometers such as Abu al-Wafa wrote practical guides to constructing these figures, knowledge shared with the craftsmen who laid out tile and plaster patterns.

Where it worksSuits a studio, a workroom or a study wall.

Pin it
2:3 · 7200 × 10800 px4×6 · 8×12 · 12×18 · 16×24 · 20×30 · 24×36 in
3:4 · 5400 × 7200 px6×8 · 9×12 · 12×16 · 18×24 in
4:5 · 7200 × 9000 px4×5 · 8×10 · 16×20 · 24×30 in
11:14 · 3300 × 4200 px11×14 in
A-series · 7023 × 9933 pxA5 · A4 · A3 · A2 · A1

Everything is one ZIP: every shape and size, the phone wallpaper, the SVGs and a printing guide.

← PreviousNext →

More from Golden Age

All 20 prints
A cross-section of the eye with its coats, lens and optic nerve, receiving a cone of rays from a row of points.Visual ConeNo. 13
Parallel rays of light striking a parabolic mirror and meeting at its focus.Burning MirrorNo. 14
Thirty days of one lunar month set out as a table, each cell holding the moon a little further through its phases, from the dark new moon to full and back to a last thin crescent.Lunar TableNo. 15
The earth at the centre of nested circles for the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, ringed by the sphere of the fixed stars.Seven SpheresNo. 16
The sun lighting the earth, whose cone of shadow holds a copper-red moon, with the moon's orbit traced around it.EclipseNo. 17
Shelves of glazed albarello jars, bottles and lidded pots in blue, turquoise and white, with a brass mortar and pestle.ApothecaryNo. 18
A section through a house with a windcatcher tower. Cool air is drawn down the shaft and over water from an underground channel, while warm air rises out through the dome and the second shaft.WindcatcherNo. 19
A water engine: a paddle wheel turns a gear whose crank drives a sliding yoke and two opposed pistons that lift water to a cistern.Twin PumpNo. 20

You might also like

A crescent filled with curved stripes of ink and bone that meet at both horns, edged in gold.LunesHilal · No. 73
The stars of Cetus rising over a line of hills under a dusk sky, with Diphda marked in gold and its names set on the land below.DiphdaStar Names · No. 36
A horseshoe arch in a white wall opens onto bright blue sky, with the white sun high in its crown.Noon ArchFive Prayers · No. 15
Forty tapered black rays in a long, short, middle, short rhythm open out from a plain gold core, on a bone ground. Two smaller bursts sit lower right and lower left.Burst of StarsCelestial · No. 1
A city at night: two layers of domes, minarets and flat roofs in silhouette against a sky that deepens from indigo to midnight. A crescent and scattered stars sit above, and a few arched windows glow gold.Night Over the CityRamadan & Eid · No. 10
The letter dal in Rakkas, an angular ink form resting on a terracotta slab across a bone ground.DalHuruf · No. 9
A passage running under a series of arches, alternating bars of sun and shade on the flagstones and a bright doorway at the far end.Covered PassageSunlit Doors · No. 46
A tall terracotta storage jar with incised bands stands in a shaft of light against a limestone wall, with an olive sprig at its foot.The Press JarOlive Grove · No. 11