[4] The three canvases of Titian were admired and copied as much in Italy as in Spain by artists like Pieter Paul Rubens, Guido Reni, Nicolas Poussin, and Diego Velázquez, and they contributed to the development of the Baroque style.

[5]: 70 In 1782, British painter Joshua Reynolds admired The Bacchanal, which inspired him to draw a parallel between Titian and the Latin poet Virgil: "What was said of Virgil, that he threw even filth about the ground with an air of dignity, may be applied to Titian; whatever he touched, however naturally mean and habitually familiar, by a kind of magic he invested with grandeur and importance.

The absence of Bacchus from the painting is explained by Erwin Panofsky, who suggests that the god must be on the departing ship seen in the center background.

A little behind a puer mingens raises up his tunic, "pees in a river and reflects himself in water", as always Vasari described him, while at the center two young girls chatter lying on the ground, enlightened by full light.

Another man is touching with impunity her ankle, but he's also turning his face to a dancer who seems about to stumble: he cites faithfully a character from the Battle of Cascina of Michelangelo, who is visible below to the right in the copy of Aristotile da Sangallo.

In spite of the gesture the man and the woman seem to ignore each other: the strong sense of beauty and joy, even erotic, is never disturbed by vulgar attitudes.

To the left an overweight man, who resembles Silenus, is kneeling half-nude and drinks with pleasure from a pitcher, just filled from the wine river, from which also a boy is drawing.

The violets between the hair of the central female figure might be a reference to the name Violante: a tradition states as a matter of fact that Titian's mistress was Palma il Vecchio's daughter, who was exactly called so.