How does the author use symbolism in the short-story, The Unknown Masterpiece?

The uses the unknown masterpiece as a symbol of love–specifically the love of life, of beauty, of love, and of art, and how all intersect in art itself. Frenhofer argues in the story that art is combination of love of the subject and love of the painting itself. Only when both forms of love are combined is a real work of art made. The real work of art is pure. It does not merely copy love, life, and beauty, but expresses these things. The unknown masterpiece therein is pure love. Whereas Frenhofer wishes to protect this and present it in whole form to the world, Nicolas and Porbus wish to see the unfinished masterpiece, coveting it almost sexually. Visually, the masterpiece is supposed to depict a young nude woman surrounded by curtains on a coverlet with burning incense, while in reality, the picture features as its only recognizable part, her foot, as the rest is chaotic and full of colors, shapes, and lines without any seeming purpose beyond what Frenhofer can see, meaning perhaps that true beauty can never be done justice outside the source of the beauty itself.