In the collection of origin the painting bore a traditional attribution to Pietro da Cortona; however, it seems more attributable to a gifted pupil of Guido Reni in Bologna, such as Giovan Giacomo Sementi (Bologna 1580 - 1638) or Francesco Gessi (Bologna 1588 -1649).
The work, of great visual impact and notable dimensions, reworks the iconographic theme of the procession of Bacchus which, from Annibale Carracci onwards, had great success among classicist painters, especially Emilian ones, as a perfect example of "history painting", in which it was possible to arrange a great variety of figures posed in elegant gestures and grandiloquent.