Aesthetic experience of nature and concept of progress in the Comision Corografica

This paper explores two intertwined subjects in the cultural and artistic modernity: the aesthetic experience of nature and the understanding of temporality in terms of progress. We can find these subjects in the Colombian project named Comision Corografica - considered the cultural and scientific most important project in Colombia'n history of Nineteenth Century. The project was conceived on the context of liberal reforms and it grouped intellectuals, scientists and artists like Manuel Ancizar, Agustin Codazzi y Carmelo Fernandez. The analysis will be make from the perspective of a history of ways of aesthetic experience that was formulated by Hans-Robert Jauss. From this research perspective we can ask by different ways of artistic praxis and aesthetic appreciation of world. In addition, this perspective allows understand the relation between particular ways of aesthetics experience and political processes of modernity. The paper concerns specifically the conception of nature and progress in Alexander von Humboldt and Agustin Codazzi in as much that it were determining elements in the Comision Corografica.