Sebastiaen Vrancx was born in Antwerp in 1573, during a period of uprisings against the ruling Spanish government. Son of Jan Vrancx and Barbara Coutereau, he was a pupil of Adam van Noort (1561/62-641) according to Karel van Mander's Schilderboeck. His apprenticeship was completed by a stay in Italy in 1596, before returning to Antwerp where he became a free master in 1600. The trip to Italy was important: he stayed in Rome, where he visited the studio of the Antwerp-born painter Paul Bril (1553/54-1626), then went onto Venice, where he was in contact with Lodewijk Toeput (1550-1604/05), followed by Naples. Influences from the Renaissance and Antiquity can be seen in his ornamentations and ruin motifs. In 1610, he became a member of the Guild of Romanists, also known as the Brotherhood of St. Paul and St. Peter. Established at Antwerp Cathedral in 1572, it required its members to have visited Rome and to perpetuate the Romanist tradition. Vrancx was appointed dean in 1617. Before that, he was made second dean of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1610, then first dean in 1611. He went on to serve two five-year terms as captain of the Civil Guard between 1621 and 1631.

A member of the De Violieren chamber of rhetoric, writing poetry and plays, Vrancx’s body of work was composed of pioneering cavalry and battle scenes, church interiors, landscapes and genre scenes inspired by Bruegel. Erudite and versatile, he was a precursor of the Antwerp school and very popular in his home town. His patrons and clients included Christian IV of Denmark.

A contemporary of Pieter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens, he adopted and retained the strong contours and viewpoint of Jan Brueghel the Elder. He was the first painter in the Southern Netherlands to specialise in paintings of looting and ambushes. His style is characterised by a distribution of colours and compositions that remain highly narrative, where figures abound, revealing an artist still influenced by the previous century. Sebastiaen Vrancx's use of colour is restrained, and the overall effect is dominated by red and dark brown. He collaborated with other artists such as Jan Bruegel the Elder, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Joos de Momper, painters of the Neefs family, Paul Vredeman de Vries, Tobias Verhaecht, Alexander Keirincx, Jan van Balen, Frans Francken II and David Vinckboons, who commissioned him to paint figures.