Charles Zacharie Landelle (1812-1908) was encouraged to become a painter by Ary Scheffer. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in October 1837, as a pupil of Paul Delaroche, and first exhibited at the Salon with a self-portrait in 1841. His first success, Fra Angelico asking God for Inspiration (1842), was of a sentimental character; this quality, combined with a religious tendency, alternated in his oeuvre with attractive pictures of young girls. He often painted in the pious manner of Ary Sheffer combined with the soft pale style common among some of his colleagues from the studio of Delaroche. Among his public commissions were pictures for the Parisian churches of Saint-Roch, Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, and Saint-Sulpice.

Velleda was a priestess and prophet of the Germanic Bructeri tribe, regarded as a deity in the second half of the first century AD. During the Roman power struggle of AD 69 the Batavian chieftain, Gaius Julius Civilis, had originally allied his forces with the Emperor Vespasian, but on realising the depleted condition of the legions in Romanized Germany, he openly revolted. Velleda is thought to have either prophesied the initial success of the rebellion, or to have actively incited the Bructeri, as represented in this work, to fight their former allies. She is here shown standing at three-quarter-length, her head turned to the viewer with a look of urgency, her right hand raised in agitation, her left by her side holding a scroll; wearing a white robe with a red belt and a mantle; a garland of oak leaves on her head.

Exhibited at the Paris Salon 1870 (1566)