What is the relationship between art and death in the story? The masque of the red death

I am not aware of any relationship between love and death in this story. Prince Prospero believes that his affluence and authority can render him invulnerable to the terrible disease that plagues his kingdom, and so he invites his healthiest and most fun friends to retire with him to his secluded abbey. He stocks the abbey with anything and everything that might appeal, and they weld the iron gates shut to be sure that no one can enter and no one can exit their fortress. The Prince doesn't invite them because he loves them; he invites them because—frankly—he wants some friends to party with until the disease has passed.

Some scholars do interpret the Red Death as representative of tuberculosis—a disease that results in the victim coughing up a great deal of blood before their usually inevitable death —and Poe's mother, the woman who took him in after his mother's death, and his wife all died of tuberculosis. Perhaps a grieving Poe wrote this story to represent his vain wish that there could be some way to save a loved one from such a terrible disease.

an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.