Like a sculptor who models clay, obtaining different shapes with the same amount of material, Leonardo transforms squares into rectangles, cubes into parallelepipeds, pyramids into other equivalent pyramids, etc.

To Leonardo, even the shapes of living organisms are transformable. For example, the similarities between man and birds are sufficient to allow the human body to fly. In the Battle of Anghiari, the transfiguration of a horseman into a centaur is the artistic pendant of this vision.