During the struggle for supremacy between Rinaldo degl’Albizzi and Cosimo de’ Medici, Palla degl’ Strozzi, “who was,” writes Machiavelli, “a peaceful man, well-mannered and kindly, better fitted for a life of study than for keeping a party in check and averting civil discord,” tried to preserve a neutral attitude. But the presence of so enlightened and rich a citizen seemed dangerous to the Medicean party, and after the return of Cosimo de’ Medici from exile in 1434 he was banished to Padua, where he died, separated from his children, who shared the same fate in other parts of Italy. The wonderful bust of his daughter Marietta by “il bravo Desider si dolce e bello,” as Raphael’s father called Desiderio da Settignano, is one of the treasures of the Palazzo Strozzi. His cousin Matteo, married to Alessandra Macinghi, was exiled at the same time, and the Strozzi property having been confiscated, she was left in dire poverty with six small children. After her husband’s death at Pesaro, she sent her eldest boy, Filippo, to an old family friend who had a house of business in Palermo. She must have been a lovable, courageous, and sensible woman, judging by her letters.[91] When the last boy left her she wrote to Filippo: “I have no treasure but you my three sons, and for your welfare I have sent you from me, one after the other, without a thought of my own happiness.” When Filippo set up on his own account at Naples she longed to join him, but thought it wiser to stay in Florence and work for the possible restoration of her children to their native city. Charming are her descriptions of the various girls she proposes to her son as suitable wives; they pass before one like a procession out of the frescoes of the XVth century.