The work is from the Gazing Ball Paintings series by American artist Jeff Koons (b. 1955), which began in 2014. Gazing Ball (Perugino Madonna and Child with Four Saints) is a wondrous combination of a handpainted version of Madonna and Child with Four Saints (1500–01) by Italian Renaissance painter Perugino and a smooth cobalt-blue glass ball.

The Nieuwe Kerk Masterpiece series presents works of art so extraordinary that they are almost never loaned out, because of their fragility or their status as beloved favourites. Many of the works featured in the series have an obvious or unexpected religious or spiritual dimension. Each one is a work that calls for contemplation and introspection and dazzles visitors in the breath-taking surroundings of De Nieuwe Kerk’s gothic interior.