Based on classical texts, the picture shows a procession with the drunken god Bacchus at its centre, surrounded by other humans, satyrs, and animals.

Because Bacchanal scenes typically feature the god surrounded by his female followers, the originality of Wautier's composition indicates that if Leopold Wilhelm did commission this painting from her, it was likely with minimal instruction.

Bacchus is also more typically shown surrounded by Bacchantes (Maenads to the Greek Dionysus), his female followers, yet Wautier has instead emphasized the nude male body in her composition.

[1][page needed] Wautier was in her late 40s or early 50s at the time she painted The Triumph of Bacchus, and was living in Brussels, where she was well-known at court.

Baptism records from September 2, 1604 mark the birth of a 'Maria Magdalena Watier,'[1] In the 1659 inventory of Leopold Wilhelm's collection, The Triumph of Bacchus was attributed to a von N. Woutiers.

[1] A historian by the name of F. V. Goethels argued in the nineteenth century that these--Madeline and Michelle, as he spelled them--were two separate women who must have been sisters, but careful research into the sources of these paintings show that they can only be attributed to a single person, whether she is called Magdalena or Michaelina.