At the centre, Christ stands in shallow water with his hands pressed together in prayer, his body wrapped at the waist in a pale cloth, as John the Baptist, robed in a simple brown garment, pours water over his head from a shallow bowl. A white dove, its wings outstretched, hovers directly above Christ, set against a sky of clear blue punctuated by a few grey clouds, while the light falls evenly across the scene, illuminating the figures and the landscape with clarity. To the left, three angels stand in a group, each with distinctively coloured garments: one in blue and red, one in white, and one in pale pink, their hands joined together rather than holding Christ's robe, and their faces rendered with serene, contemplative expressions.

Behind the main figures, a man in white briefs steps into the river, pulling a shirt over his head, while further back, several figures in brightly coloured robes stand near the water's edge, some dressed in garments with an oriental style. The landscape extends into rolling hills dotted with trees and a distant town, visible just to Christ's left, with the foliage of a tall walnut tree arching above the scene and dividing the composition vertically. The paint surface reveals fine, precise brushwork, especially in the delicate rendering of the angels' hair and the subtle modelling of flesh, while the folds of drapery are described with smooth, almost sculptural clarity. The composition is highly ordered: Christ, the bowl, and the dove form a central vertical axis, while the trunk of the tree on the left creates a second division, echoing the symmetry and balance characteristic of Early Renaissance art. The Baptism of Christ is painted by Piero della Francesca, an artist celebrated for his mastery of perspective and geometry, and is associated with the Early Renaissance movement.