The archangel Raphael, disguised as the human Azariah, was sent to accompany Tobias on his errand.

The two main figures are depicted walking through a landscape, accompanied by a white dog, with trees and a river, and a tall tower to the right.

The subject of Tobias and the Angel was popular with the wealthy merchants of Renaissance Florence, combining themes of the recovery of debts, the healing of the sick, a youth taking good advice from his elders and developing into adulthood, and Christ (the fish) and baptism (the waters of the Tigris).

It also had resonances with the common experience of merchants' sons being sent on trading missions to distant locations.

The Benson Collection was sold to Duveen Brothers in 1927, and the painting was acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1936.