We may legitimately say that nature -- in the multiplicity of its objects -- has been considered in his history of aesthetics, as a central ground of aesthetical experience, and also as object of theoretical investigation on the modalities of that experience. On the other hand, a process is at present observed in which, that theme has been slowly considered of secondary importance, mainly after Hegel's aesthetics -- or rather philosophy of art. In this paper we try to show how (...) nature is being rediscovered both as the subject and as the background of aesthetical experience of art itself, mainly in the work of one of the greatest authors in contemporary aesthetical thought -- Mikel Dufrenne. It is also claimed that that rediscovery renews the metaphysical dimension of the aesthetical discourse. (shrink)