symbolist vs artist

symbolist and artist both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
symbolist	Yes	No	No	No
artist	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, artist is a hypernym of symbolist; that is, artist is a word with a broader meaning than symbolist:

symbolist: a member of an artistic movement that expressed ideas indirectly via symbols
artist: a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination

Other hypernyms of symbolist include creative person.

symbolist (noun)	artist (noun)
a member of an artistic movement that expressed ideas indirectly via symbols	a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination
someone skilled in the interpretation or representation of symbols