From Marx discussion on relative value in Capital volume I:

(…) in so far as the linen itself is an object of value [Wertding], it and the coat are as like as two peas. (…) By means of the value-relation, therefore, the natural form of commodity B becomes the value-form of commodity A, in other words the physical body of commodity B becomes a mirror for the value of commodity A.¹⁹

19. In a certain sense, a man is in the same situation as a commodity. As he neither enters into the world in possession of a mirror, nor as a Fichtean philosopher who can say ‘I am I’, a man first sees and recognizes himself in’ another man.

I think there could be stated an analogous dual relation between art and material reality, maybe perhaps already made elsewhere.