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The subject was popular among artists during the Renaissance, and Carpaccio told the overwrought story in a sequence of nine large canvases designed for a confraternity building known as the Scuola di Sant Orsola.

In the 16th century, one confraternity built a small church inside the arena, Santa Maria della Pieta, which still exists.

Prosecco’s rock bottom prices were also blasphemous to the spirit of the confraternity’s founders, including his uncle and Ms. Bortolomiol’s father.

Each new member then needed to chug half a bottle of the winner of the confraternity’s annual blind taste test.

The grandmaster of the Confraternity of Valdobbiadene — a hallowed society of Prosecco makers from the wine’s traditional home on the Valdobbiadene and Conegliano hills — Mr. Bortolomiol, 55, wore a heavy white fustian cloak, black velvet cap and a gold medallion embossed with the brotherhood’s coat of arms.