The people of this time believed investing substantial parts of your fortune would ensure their future salvation. The monastery was the major site of Romanesque art and architecture. For Gothic art it was the city. Gothic art flourished where the wealth of the crown and the bishops depended increasingly on trade. This was France and The Holy Roman Empire. .
The Gothic vision of the end of time is transformed into something quite different from Romanesque churches, like Autun for example. I notice the bodies are given a new emphasis. Resurrected individuals with whom beholders can identify. The poses seem to be more classical, even more sensuous. When comparing Rheims to Bourges, the angels are smiling at Rheims, although at Bourges they almost retain a verticality and symmetry. Why in Gothic art do they get to keep their crowns? This symbolizes that they retain their clerical, or royal status. It appears to me that in Gothic art not only is the past represented as if it were happening in the present, so was the more ominous future.
The crucifix, which still exists, is a standard of the Romanesque/Byzantine era. In the Naumburg Cathedral, the choir screen with the Crucifixion, c. 1245-60, we see this Romanesque image within a Gothic image. These are miraculous three dimensional images that differ from the Byzantine tradition of wall and panel painting.
Stained glass, which is a staple of Gothic art and architecture appears to be a diffusing filter to change the color of ordinary daylight. It becomes "miraculous". According to The Basic History of Art, "the sensation of ethereal light, which dissolves the physical solidity of the church and, hence, the distinction between the temporal and the divine realms, creates the intensely mystical experience that lies in the heart of Gothic spirituality"(195).
When contemplating the creations made by these church builders, with the stained glass and gold leaf, visions of arm reaching upward, I want to believe they sought to remake the world in heavenly terms.