This bacchante runs with a thyrsus laden with grapes over her shoulder, her head thrown back. It is clear from her face that she is drunk. The unnatural movement that drives the entire body forward, supported on just the left toes, is reminiscent of the art of the great sculptor Bernin, whose work Clodion had seen previously in Rome. This baroque influence is combined with classical overtones from Hellenistic cameos, seen in the billowing folds of the bacchante's robe. Although her right arm, which once brandished a goblet, is today missing, this dancing bacchante nonetheless demonstrates Clodion's masterly skill. He continued to make works in the Ancien Régime style under the Consulate and the Empire. Clodion liked to take bacchantes as subjects. In his early career, he portrayed them in bas-relief, but later used sculptures in the round that show a sense of volume and movement that was remarkable for the period.