The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian formed part of a group of paintings that were intended to be placed on the altars of the Rotunda of the Convento de Cristo, in Tomar. The royal painter of Dom Manuel I and Dom João III, Gregório Lopes illustrates the transition from a certain hegemony of the Flemish figurative culture in the Manueline period to the sudden openness of artists, in the 1530s, to Italian or Italianate models.

In the case of this particular work, mention should be made of the duplication of vanishing points, in keeping with the predominant line of vision in the circular environment of the Rotunda of the Convento de Cristo in Tomar, a representational device that arises from the typically Renaissance reflection on the methods to be used for the construction of perspective.