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This triptych was one of a number of privately commissioned altarpieces in Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence, paid for by individual families, whose members often included monks in the monastery. The centre panel depicts The Baptism of Christ, it is flanked by panels showing St Peter (left) and St Paul (right). In the predella (48 x 196 cm) are scenes from the life of St John the Baptist: left, the Angel Gabriel appears to St Zacharias and the Birth of John the Baptist; right, the Beheading of John the Baptist, the Feast of Herod, and Salome bringing the Baptist's head to Herodias. At the extreme ends of the predella are, on the left, St Benedict, and on the right St Romuald. It is assumed by some scholars that the altarpiece had other main tier panels and pinnacles.
The iconography of the central scene is taken from Giovanni del Biondo's Altarpiece of the Baptist.
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