In the nave of NĂ´tre Dame every vestige of this Greekesque foliage is got rid of, its general outline alone excepted; and a kind perfectly new and most truly noble is substituted, founded slightly on reminiscences of the true Romanesque foliage previous to the Oriental importation, retaining the outline suggested by the acanthus leaf, but worked up into a form which had never before been hinted at, and which was destined to effect a great revolution in this branch of art.
Source: wiktionary