BAYT AL KRITLIYYAH TRIPTYCH - Fine Art Print by Gillian Turnham

These two patterns are taken from a mosaic floor in Bayt Al Kritliyyah (currently the Gayer Anderson Museum) in Cairo, Egypt. The outer two columns feature a pattern from the tenfold family (created by dividing a circle into ten equal parts) while the central column features a pattern from the twelvefold family (created by dividing a circle into twelve equal parts). Each symmetry family has one or more harmonically proportioned rectangles into which patterns can be naturally arranged. In this piece, I have established a mathematical union between the “root two” rectangle of the tenfold family and the longer, thinner “root three” rectangle of the twelvefold family, resulting in three columns of perfectly equal length.