Thousands of tiny soldiers clash on a plain beneath a sky where a blazing sun battles a crescent moon, while mountains, rivers and a sea stretch away toward a distant horizon. Banners and lances crowd the scene, and a hanging tablet with a Latin inscription floats at the top. A red cord from the tablet leads the eye down to Alexander the Great, charging after the chariot of the fleeing Persian king. The scene is Alexander's victory over Darius III at Issus in 333 BC.

The painting was made for a cycle of history paintings that Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria and his wife, Maria Jacobaea of Baden, commissioned in 1528 for their Munich residence. In that year the city of Regensburg released Albrecht Altdorfer from his official duties so that he could carry out a large work for the duke, presumably this one. He based the landscape on the maps of his day, to give an impression of the extent of Alexander's empire. The museum traces the origins of the Alte Pinakothek's painting collection back to that cycle.

The Latin inscription, later altered, gives details and casualties of the battle. The panel is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.