[2] It was commissioned by the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali (guild of the Doctors and Pharmacists, to which the painters also belonged) for the church of Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite in Florence, a church institution housing former prostitutes or fallen women, who had converted from their previous life, and whose patron saint was Mary Magdalene[3] The traditional Italian name means the altarpiece or "panel" (pala) of the "converted ones" (convertite).

In the background is a blue sky within two rocky spurs, in front of which are Mary Magdalene, taken in an intense praying posture, and St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence, who, as usual in the pictures of the period, is pointing to the centre of the composition.

[7] In the lower part, at a much smaller scale, are Tobias and the Angel (the Archangel Raphael with Tobias), who is holding the fish that, in the Biblical tale, he had been told by the angel to capture in order to save his father (but his usual dog is missing).

Their presence is no doubt because Raphael was the patron saint of the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali.

[8] Modern imaging has revealed that originally this pair were on the right behind the cross in a landscape background that was later overpainted.