In the centre is Saint Sebastian, the Roman officer shot for his Christian beliefs. He is nude save for a loin-cloth and tied to a Corinthian column which forms part of a fragmentary triumphal arch. Arrows pierce him and his torment is being observed by soldiers in pseudo-antique armour in the lower right corner and in the left middle-ground. In the background are ruins and rocks, with a horseman on the right.

This painting was thought to be by Mantegna when Queen Victoria acquired it through Ludwig Grüner, and it is clearly inspired by Mantegna's Saint Sebastian of c. 1470 (Louvre, Paris). The Croatian artist Bernardo Parentino worked at Mantua, and must have known the court artist Mantegna. The attribution to Parentino is rests on comparison to signed pictures: Christ with Two Saints (Galleria Estense, Modena), and Temptation of Saint Anthony (Doria Gallery, Rome). No clear chronology of Parentino’s works exists but the Doria picture, which it particularly resembles in style, is usually dated c. 1485.