At the left Ariadne reclines, asleep on the rocks. In the sky above her is Cupid with a crown of stars. Bacchus stands at the right with a vine-entwined staff in his left hand, attended by men and women and baby satyrs. The sail of Theseus's ship is visible on the horizon at the far left.

The picture tells the story of Ariadne, who was abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos and was discovered by Bacchus on his return from India. The sources include Ovid, 'Metamorphoses', Book VIII, lines 176-82, and Philostratus, 'Imagines', Book I, chap. 15 (where Ariadne is specifically mentioned as asleep when Bacchus arrives). The is one of a series of five paintings of mythological love-stories which are associated with Giordano in the royal collection. In a very general way the composition is probably indebted to Titian's famous painting of the same subject in the National Gallery, which was engraved in reverse in the seventeenth century.